Page 51 of A Better Place

CHAPTER TEN

James

The day has alreadybeen crazy, and it’s not even nine am. Lily and I spent the night at Tess and Barrett’s to celebrate Christmas morning with them. Lily sits down beside me on the couch, resting her head on my shoulder.

“You’re happy, Dad.”

“I am,” I tell her, even though she sees it.

“Carly?”

“Not just Carly. But yes, she makes me happy.”

“Do you think you’ll be able to make it official soon?”

“I hope so, baby girl. But I’m willing to wait.”

“I know you are.”

She wraps her arm around my waist, giving me a tight hug. “I like you with her. I need to meet her, though.”

It’s not that I’ve been not introducing them on purpose. A part of me has been stalling this since she came home from school because I’m not introducing Lily to just anyone. Carly and Jack are important to me, but Lily has and always will come first. Even though she’s twenty-two years old, I still need to keep her at the top of my priority list.

“Today,” she says, giving me a squeeze and lifting her head to look up at me.

“But, it’s Christmas Day.”

Of course I want to see Carly and Jack today — that’s no different than any other day — but I don’t want to take away from our family, either.

“You have a gift for her and Jack, right?”

“Yeah. I got Jack some new earbuds — some good ones, or so the tech guy told me. And Carly… I got her this mug that is perfect for her, a gold bracelet that says Beautiful on it and a few other things.”

“I believe you, Dad. You didn’t have to tell me what you got them!” She laughs.

“Well, I figured you should know since I put your name on the tag. It’s not weird that I got them gifts?”

“No. It’s not weird. You said they’re alone. They don’t have other family, at least not that she wants to be around, so I’m sure they’d love to have company.” She snickers.

We always have so much family surrounding us. It doesn’t matter if it is a birthday party, holiday or simple Sunday dinner, we never lacked for people. To some, it would be overwhelming but we don’t know any other way.

“Yeah, baby girl, I want to see them.”

“Text her right now and see if it works, okay? I need to meet her. I wish I could’ve met her weeks ago.”

“Alright, I’ll do that.”

After pulling up in front of Carly’s house, I reach into the back seat and grab the gifts I picked out for her and Jack. I straighten up and nod at a silver car that’s just pulling away from where it was parked across the street from Carly’s house. The man driving stares at me, causing my skin to prickle. I look over at Lily and see that she noticed him, also. She looks at me and scrunches her eyebrows then giggles. “Merry Christmas to him, too, huh?”

“Yeah,” I say distractedly.

“Dad?”

“Huh?”

“Ready?”

“Oh. Yeah. Let’s go,” I tell her and shake off the eerie feeling that settled in my bones.

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